Haralambidou, Penelope; (2023) Visual cast: Cinéma en relief and the nude figure in Given. In: Haladyn, Julian Jason, (ed.) Duchamp Accelerated: Contemporary Perspectives. (pp. 147-166). Bloomsbury Visual Arts: London, UK.

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Abstract

Sitting in front of a computer monitor and wearing LCD glasses I am moving a cursor with the help of a special mouse, which, in addition to normal planar movement, controls diving in stereoscopic depth. What I am looking at is the scene behind the doors of Marcel Duchamp’s enigmatic assemblage Étant donnés: 1° la chute d’eau, 2° le gaz d’éclairage gaz d’éclairage (Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas) (1946–66).[1] The aim is to establish the coordinates of the three-dimensional form of the nude figure by purely visual means. The sensation of moving the cursor is of an optical finger ‘touching’ every element; navigating in three dimensions I can place it confidently in different locations within the virtual model with certainty. Each touch leaves a mark, a point in space in the form of a red cross (Figure 12.1). However, defining the exact point of intersection needs practice, because the tactile resistance of a physical material object is absent. Touching the virtual model is like touching smoke or a shaft of light. The resulting three-dimensional field of points describes its spatial form but is devoid of pictorial information. Like floating gas particles in the shape of the nude figure, the measured points are an unveiled, undressed geometry of vision.

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